Programmable Bispecific Nano-immunoengager That Captures T Cells and Reprograms Tumor Microenvironment.

Zhang, Lu; Bo, Ruonan; Wu, Yi; Li, Longmeng; Zhu, Zheng; Ma, Ai-Hong; Xiao, Wenwu; Huang, Yanyu et al. · Nano Lett · 2022

basic_science · Level V

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Abstract

Immune checkpoint blockade (ICB) therapy has revolutionized clinical oncology. However, the efficacy of ICB therapy is limited by the ineffective infiltration of T effector (T<sub>eff</sub>) cells to tumors and the immunosuppressive tumor microenvironment (TME). Here, we report a programmable tumor cells/T<sub>eff</sub> cells bispecific nano-immunoengager (NIE) that can circumvent these limitations to improve ICB therapy. The peptidic nanoparticles (NIE-NPs) bind tumor cell surface α<sub>3</sub>β<sub>1</sub> integrin and undergo <i>in situ</i> transformation into nanofibrillar network nanofibers (NIE-NFs). The prolonged retained nanofibrillar network at the TME captures T<sub>eff</sub> cells via the activatable α<sub>4</sub>β<sub>1</sub> integrin ligand and allows sustained release of resiquimod for immunomodulation. This bispecific NIE eliminates syngeneic 4T1 breast cancer and Lewis lung cancer models in mice, when given together with anti-PD-1 antibody. The <i>in vivo</i> structural transformation-based supramolecular bispecific NIE represents an innovative class of programmable receptor-mediated targeted immunotherapeutics to greatly enhance ICB therapy against cancers.

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